Good work day in the wind

My fault that I did not get the message out, but a few turned out and we got plenty done on Saturday afternoon despite the 35 MPH winds outside.

All hive parts are painted with second coat, Thanks Allen and Rob.

We wired at least 40 of the 70 frames, and have wax foundation in the first 8 frame super.....thanks Dylan and Harrison ..... that gives us enough to put one hive together if a swarm is caught in near future.

Next work day :

March 11, Sunday at 2pm


We will have 30 minutes of Theory, build a hive stand , continue to put wax foundation in frames and also visit the site of the hives on the farm. Watch the site for details on Theory section..


Boys need to vote on  POLL  (Top Right side of page)--- if they want to paint hives with designs or colors too.......


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Do bee hives have to be plain ?

So we now have all our wooden ware completely assembled, after a nice adult turnout weekend before last. Our only Scout was Wesley on his 16th birthday too, he showed some of the adults how to make frames in the jig.

We finished the rest of the frames, did a demo of how to wire in foundation despite the cold, the wax shattered with one small tap of the hammer.  We decided that it was too cold to realistically paint , as it was below freezing outside. So will catch up on painting on our next workday. It will NOT be on March 17, as I have to go to Scout Master Training that weekend now. I need to choose another date , so please check back.

We will also do an hour of book work next time, I will prep the lesson and it will on the tabs again. Hopefully by then I will have a quote on getting the books published.

So looking at our nice looking pale yellow hives, and I wondered if we have to keep them so plain, so looked up hive art.....

Some ideas

Could just be multi colored ??

Easy enough to do with some cans of spray paint

 

So , up to you guys ...... let me know and I will provide supplies to do something artful.....


We could have a nice looking Apiary from the road.

This weekend Feb 12 - we will still meet 2pm

So many boys are going skiing, BUT, we still have work and some people staying behind, so we will still go ahead and do some work, as our bees arrive 2nd week of April and we could get a swarm as early as second week of March.

Sunday is going to be VERY VERY cold,  Dress accordingly please and remember we will be painting.

Any and all scouts (plus parents) welcome......even if not part of project and curious about what we are up to.... no bees will be harmed this weekend as too cold.

We will paint, build more frames and also start doing some wiring and wax foundation mounting, as so many boys will be missing, we wont do any theory this week, just hardware.


I will arrange the workshop so we have more space and the heater will be working.

Dates for Feb and March

Ok , we have a few more things to get ready so that we have a home for our bees when they are ready.

We need to get more frames built, and put foundation into these frames, PLUS some more painting

YES _______ PAINTING ...... so this time bring the right clothes please

Second work day.:  SUNDAY February 12th at 2pm again...... sorry but Saturdays dont work all Feb due to swim meets.If the weather is nice - ie over 55 deg with little wind we can open a hive- so be prepared with clothing.....if not sure please ask questions.

The March work day Saturday 17th - St Patrick's Day might, in fact should be a hands on day........which means bringing appropriate clothes to work inside my bee hives and handle bees.

I should have a draft of your study books ready by then...... but please read the Pages on Bee Basics BEFORE coming on Feb 12th 
There will be a simple test to do

Anyone wanting to help prior to this date , contact me as i work in the wood  shop on Bee stuff most free times, weekends always!!!

First Workday

On one of only a few cold days this winter, we started work on building our hives.
8 boys, 3 assistant Scoutmasters,  two parents and two Bee Keeping Mentors from the local club got together at the barn and split up into teams of two boys each. Some of the adults stayed real close to the heater in the corner of the barn.......LOL.

We did a quick revision of equipment, and gave each boy a handout. Not all took the handouts home, but all the info is on the Blog tab, and once the proof reading is complete, we will publish the full Beekeeping book and give one to each boy and adult taking part.

Each team had adults supervising , but the boys did the almost all the work. Two boys starting assembling Medium frames using a 10 frame assembly jig, two worked on Medium Super boxes glueing all the finger joints and putting the box into the squaring jig, two more then nailed the boxes together, and when we had a bunch of boxes ready , the last two sanded them ready for painting.

One thing I had not thought of,  was that my workbenches have been designed for my height, so we had the boys working at too high a level and moved some of the work onto the wooden floors, both inside and outside the barn.

Another oversight was 11-13 year old boys with paint brushes....... yep paint everywhere......

Joe helping Conner and Jack sand a box

Wesley, Dylan and James

But we assembled, sanded and painted all 6 hive components -3x 8Frame Medium Supers, 2x 10 Frame Medium Supers and one 10 frame Deep, we also did one Bottom board, and I started cleaning, sanding and  repairing a second hand Super and an Inner Cover.

A Great first workday and all who participated gave good feedback and I believe a great success.

Next time we will continue with Frames and also wire the frames and insert Wax Foundation into them. I will setup a better workbench for the boys next time too.

email me if any questions...... or ideas...

Oh yes,..... I nearly forgot.... there is some confusion about signing up / joining this blog....

On the right hand side of this post, see the " Follow by email box" enter your email and click Submit, it will bring up a character entering screen, do that please, and it will send you an email within 5 minutes , open the email and click on the link it sent you and then you are subscribed will get all the updates on the noon after I post them.
Some spam filters might catch the email it sends = so please check within 5-10 minutes of entering the character screen.

The Project is live

Looking forward to all the guys who join us

First work date is set as Saturday January 14. We will assemble and paint some hives and honey supers.

I will add equipment information under the lesson tab Before the time.

Have a wonderful holiday.

Beekeeping Boy Scout Project
• Exact Commitments  for the year ( Hive time 21‐24 hrs – workshop 10 hrs –Lessons 6 hrs)

• Jan / Feb ‐ 2‐3 work days in Rick’s workshop to build hives 3 hrs minimum each time
•  Beginners course on Thursday nights at Guilford County Ext ( not mandatory) 
• Full details : http://www.guilfordbeekeepers.org/community/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1378

•  Feb :  1‐2 time check Rick’s hives for food ‐ only if temp above 60 Deg
•  March : Busy Time for Swarms ‐ on call –plus learn on 2 weekend days
•  April :  Get our hives and get Hands on – 2 days 2 hrs
•  May :  2 days x 1 hr –plus 1x 2 hrs Workshop day for frames
•  June – 2 days x 3 hrs –Honey extraction
•  July 1 – 2 days x 3 hrs Honey extraction‐ Feeding
•  Aug Sept Oct – 1 day /month – 1 hr each time (feed and treatments if needed)
•  Nov / Dec – little to no work‐ except workshop time